so what does Pascal, Newton, Descartes, Plato, Marx, Aristotle,Augustine, Einstein and the bible have in common?

ummmm, they do have something in common...

they, each of them have created a map... a map of reality....some maps are scientific in nature and some are theological andsome are philosophical in nature... each map has a different starting point...Einstein and Newton from a scientific starting point, Descartes and Platofrom a philosophical starting point and Pascal and Augustine from a theological starting point.... thus each one is different....

let us go for our maps again.... I take a map and I use that map to find my way.... the starting point makes a huge difference....

a map that starts in Detroit is different from a map that starts from New Yorkwhich is different from a map that starts from L.A....and thus each will end in a different place.....and each map is a map of reality...but because they start from different places will be different maps....

what if the map starts from a imaginary point.... say, El Dorado, the mythof the golden city that the Spanish followed for many, many miles.....El Dorado doesn't exist and the Spanish were lead many miles awayfrom pretty much everything.... in following this myth.......

so if we start from the wrong place.. we have a good chance of ending upin the wrong place....... that is the trouble with theological maps....they start from the wrong premise and take us far away from reality......their map insist that there is a god and heaven and hell and angels andthe devil.... that is a map of their reality... but what if god doesn't existsand that means there is no heaven and no hell and no angels and no devil...their map is completely wrong and following a map that is completely wrongwill lead one on the wrong path........

scientist have a different map....and their map of reality is closer to reality then the theologian.....scientist don't need faith for their map to be right, and by science, the map is self correcting.... leading scientist toward adestination.... but that is the problem with science... it doesn't have a destination, just a method to keep one on track but on track toward what?

Philosophers have their map.... a map of reality.... and Descartes and Spinozaand Plato and Kant and Hegel all have a different map of reality.........so who do you follow? the person or the map which seems to be closes toreality for you.....so for me, the person whose map seems to be closes to realityfor me is Hume and Nietzsche... but for you, it might be Kant and Descartes....and for someone else it might be Plato and Husserl......you never know.....but that is the point.... we each follow a philosopher because their mapseems to be the closes to reality that we can see.......

as mentioned, some maps are tainted because they are corrupted bymyths and habits and prejudices and superstitions... these corruptionsmake the map unreliable and not very trustworthy ....would you followa map that seems to be unreliable? I wouldn't... and you shouldn't either....this is the point of having myths and habits and prejudices and superstitionsthat they corrupt our personal map.... and that corruption will lead us the wrongway..... but how do we find out what is the right destination? ah, that is the trick isn't it, finding out what is the right destination and thus finding out what is the right map for us to use.........

is my destination to be an righteous man? then a theological map is theright one... is my destination to be a accurate man? then science seemsto have the right map....is my destination to be a wise man? then philosophy or a philosophic map, would seem to be the right one......

the destination it seems help us understand which map to use.....are we creating an equal and just world? then Marx has the right map....are we creating a democratic world? then the enlightenment ideals seemto be the right map..... and that is a very interesting thing about maps...it can lead us individually or it can lead us collectively...... and the map can tell us our place in the world.. both individually andcollectively......some maps tell us that we exist individually and collectivelyand we can be both, individual and part of something.... those maps arevery popular maps... because we can learn who we are and what is ourplace in the universe, both individually and collectively... theological maps are popular for this and the communism map is also popular for this......

so whose map do you follow and why?

Kropotkin

"Those who sacrifice liberty for securitywind up with neither." "Ben Franklin"

we seem to act as if we are done with the evolution of society/government and us...... as if there is no whereelse to go because we have capitalism and representative democracy,as our systems and that is it... we're done.... we have our political system and we have our economic system and nothing else needs to be done....we have reached the final place of history... that's all folks.....

and yet, we aren't done.... for us to adapt, we must change our systems, both political and economic to adapt the changing conditions...a system that is perfect at one time, becomes totally disastrous at a later date...

even our current political system has change dramatically since the days of the founding fathers because of changes in demographics and population growthand technology among other changes....... the government must change and adaptto changing conditions like any other system in order to adapt, to function well....

if we came back in a hundred years, the government we will see, will bedramatically different then the one we see today and it should change....it should adapt to the changing conditions....

we must not think that we are at the end of the journey...we are on a never ending path, a journey...one that will concludewith an entirely different set of people... just not us.....

understand that we are not only in the process of change, we are change.....

Kropotkin

"Those who sacrifice liberty for securitywind up with neither." "Ben Franklin"

I have written about myths and habits and prejudices and superstitionsthat we have.... these myths and so on, are programs written into usby our families and church and media and state.....we are programmed from childhood to hold certain beliefs.... America is the greatest country on earth...with myths like this, we indoctrinate our youth to hold certain beliefsthat we want to passed down from generation to generation....

but what current myths and habits and prejudices and superstitions exist today?

for example, the fake news impression from IQ45....but other myths alsoinhabit our world...... for example, the myth that the landings on the moon.were somehow faked.....the reason for these fake landings are never really madeclear, but that is the point....

the rise of the conspiracy world is no less about myths and habits and prejudices and superstition then in the past when people believed in spirits and angels andgod and heaven and hell..... how is the believe in such myths and habits any different then the conspiracy theory of the faked moon landing or in the other urban myths of today.......the Jews run the world type of myth...or the secret cabal that runs the world, somehow or the illuminati that runs the world.....how are these modern myths any different then the age old myths of witches and demons and angels and god, heaven and hell?

I for one, don't see any difference between the long ago old myths and the new myths/conspiracies of today.. the fake news of today is no different then the fake news of yesterday.... it has just changed in the type of myths and habits and prejudices and superstition we see today, it doesn't change the hold that these myths and habitshave on people.....

and the value that society has in the people having these myths is a rather interesting one...if people are hung up on these fake news/myths, then they are not paying attentionto what is happening today....the real crimes of anti-democratic actions such asinequality and injustice and intolerance are being committed......

fake news is perpetuated because it keeps people from seeing what is going on orto get people to say, the hell with it, pox on both houses and I am just not goingto pay any attention of any kind....it allows people permission to just tune out the news of the world and not pay attention.......

I know people who hold these conspiracy theory's and they are alwaysgoing on about the media is just fake news and the moon landing is fakeand about government conspiracies to take over the nation..... these people are no different then those who hold views about angels and the devil and witches and demons..... there is no difference inthe need to hold these myths and habits and prejudices and superstitions....for that is what they are, these modern urban lies are myths and habits and prejudices and superstitions....

we cannot grow as a people until we learn to live without these mythsand habits and prejudices and superstitions.....

Kropotkin

"Those who sacrifice liberty for securitywind up with neither." "Ben Franklin"

what is the point of being a "Christian" if you don't follow Christian ethics?

the original Christian thought of being Christian as a way of life.....it wasn't meant and wasn't thought of as an intellectual or theoretical exercise, it was meant to be a complete and total way of life.......you didn't just show how Christian you were by occasionally attending church for one hour a week....no, you vowed to live your life in accordance to the teachings of Christ....

it is the same for philosophy.... Plato and Aristotle thought of philosophyas a way of life, not as a theoretical devise to create philosophy but to livephilosophy...... as a way of life....

this understanding is lost in today's world......why don't use theories or ism's as a way of life.....capitalism today is not a way of life, but a tool to enslave millions of people, but it is not a way of life......communism of stalin/lenin was used to enslave millions of lives,but it was a false and failed understanding of Marx's communism that drove this version of communism......... but it wasn't meantto be a way of life.......

and that is the failure of today..... we hold theoretical views,though shall not lie.... though shall not kill.... butwe don't practice what we preach, we don't want to have a way of life... we want easy answers to the question,how shall we live our lives? certainly no one today, even suggeststhat we turn believe into a way of life..... if you are truly an Christian, then make that a way of life....

be what you believe in....

become that person.....

oh no, that is way too hard to even suggest.....most people would rather have simple, answers that require nocommitment..... why work to be a Christian? it is easier to just pretend..... be a CINO....Christian in name only....

and you CINO who approve of IQ45 depriving the poor and working poorof much needed aid and assistance.... you hold your Christianity lightly and in name only if you don't work to improve the lot of the poor...for didn't Christ himself work to help and aid the poor and needy.....

it is an easy thing to proclaim one Christianity if it means you don't have to doanything..... a Cino would say, let the poor suffer because they brought it on themselves...we, we work for everything we have and so should they......it is easy to proclaim ones superiority when there is food on the table and a roofover one's head.......it is easy to think the world is alright when you know where your next meal is coming from....

Millionaire congressmen think the world has no problem because they are millionaires and they have food on the table and a roof over their head.....it is easy to dismiss the poor and needy if you have no want.... if I am fine... the rest of the world can go to hell... I have mine...the thoughts of Christians? no, the thought of CINO's.....

It is easy to be a Christian if one doesn't actually have to practice Christianity.....if one doesn't actually use Christianity as a way of life.... just occasionally and whenever it is convenient to be a Christian....that is the CINO way....call yourself Christian when it suits you and when it is convenient... but don't use it as a way of life.... just once a week for an hour a day....

Kropotkin

"Those who sacrifice liberty for securitywind up with neither." "Ben Franklin"

if we tell our life story, we certainly don't comment on the forces that impacted our lives.....I was born in 1959 in Minnesota,move to a city outside of Chicago in 1963moved in 1969 to Florida...

this short list of my first ten years doesn't cover the forces thatshaped those years... schooling and the media, the state, events likethe assassination of JFK and Martin Luther King, plus the turbulent 60's.....I remember watching Walter Cronkite and listening to how many American soldiers dies that week in Vietnam... and not really understanding what that meant....I remember my father coming home in the summer of 1968, withblood on his white dress shirt... blood from protesters of the Democratic national convention which was in Chicago that year.....he was a newspaperman....

like a small ship on the sea, during a large storm... we are buffeted by forces quite beyond our ability to manage and often beyond our ability to understand..... an corporate executive somewhere gets a hankering fora house in Italy and to make his bonus, he must cut 100,000 jobs....and then you are out of work....simple as that... he gets his bonus and you get......

how do we find certainty in such a world where if someone gets a hard on fora house in Italy and thousands lose their job.....

or congress to give massive tax cuts to their donors, cut people off of Medicare or WIC programs..... how do we find certainty in a world like that?

perhaps the answer or the goal may not be certainty... we can never be certainabout anything....... so why make certainty a goal, when it is not possible to obtainany kind of certainty...work with the goals that are possible, so take out the searchfor certainty as being a goal of philosophy, so what is left?

Kropotkin

"Those who sacrifice liberty for securitywind up with neither." "Ben Franklin"

what we are facing, our malaise, is simply this,we have science on one side and religion on the other side, butand this is important, neither one will answer our questions....science can't answer our question because we do not understand science....modern technology which is based on science is incomprehensible to most people.... even such science as evolution which is pretty easy, is incomprehensibleto most people.......we cannot use science to understand what life is andwhat life is about.... there is no why in science and so we can't use scienceto create some ends or goals to our life....

and religion, on the other side has been thoroughly destroyed......the why that exists in religion no longer is applied by people....the miracles of religions no longer resonate with people...they no longer matter to people....

if we cannot find comfort in religion and understanding in science, then what?

what is left?

Kropotkin

"Those who sacrifice liberty for securitywind up with neither." "Ben Franklin"

so on one side we have science and 99% of all people who have no understanding of science, what it is or how it works....

and we have the religious, where in light of science and the enlightenmentideals of toleration and freedom have reduce the religious to oncea week on Sunday and absolutely no religious thoughts during the restof the week... the vast majority of people in America are CINO'S,Christians in name only.....

so we have the medieval time period which was the religiousand then we have the reawaking, the Renaissance, from which build into the age of science and then the age of the enlightenment....and for400 years slowly we have gone from the religious age to a science age.....

but as I have noted, few understand science... and we have seen the usesof science and have noted the dangers.... but dangers not from the science itself,but how it is used.... science is neutral, it isn't good or bad... it just is...but depending on how it is used, it can be good or evil........

and we have seen enough science being used for evil that we don't trust science but the danger is with the use of science, not the science itself....

and few trust the religious....if you actually trusted god, wouldyou need to kill others in his name? no, the ones who prattle on about others being irreligious or blasphemous, those people are theones with weak faith... the noisy ones about faith are the ones wholack faith.... real faith that god is in charge and you are just along forthe ride.....few, very few have real faith...... and the same can besaid about science, few trust science, really trust science......

so, what about the rest of us? we cannot turn toward the religious,but we don't trust science mostly because we don't understand it......you can't trust something you don't understand......

so where is the third way? perhaps, perhaps that is what existentialism is all about.... finding that third way....not the path of science and not the path of religion....but a new path into the future.... and we still are working out that path.....

Kropotkin

"Those who sacrifice liberty for securitywind up with neither." "Ben Franklin"

the evolution of belief has us going from a "universal" belief in god and angels and demonsand the devil, heaven and hell.....

today, few have a real belief in any of those things......reading about the enlightenment is the point that the enlightenment was about freeing us from myths, habits,prejudices and superstitions of the time......for each timehas its own myths and habits and prejudices and superstitions.....

one of our myths is that we live in a democracy... we don't.....another habit/myth is we are that the U.S is the freest country on earth...another myth/habit is that we even have freedom, we don't.....sure you are free to select your car and your cereal and the shoes you wear, but so what? freedom of this type is limited becauseyou have only 4 companies making all that cereal on the shelf'sand you only have 5 companies making all those models of car's....

the freedom to buy merchandise is not freedom.. just crass materialism....true freedom is the ability to make choices, choicesof who we are and what are our possibilities?...to believe we are freeto choose god is simply not true because you have one choice, pick god or spend eternity in hell... and that is not a choice, but a threat....you do not have choice politically because we have no choices politically....one might claim we can vote out our politicians but the fact is, mostpoliticians are lock into their positions by gerrymandering....the politicianschoose their voters and not the voters choosing the politicians....gerrymandering is one of the greatest threats to democracy that exists...and as long as gerrymandering exists, we shall not have a viable democracy....

another myth/habit is the idea that the politicians are working for us...how can they be, when they get millions of dollars from corporations andindividuals? Politicians simply follow the money and do the bidding of those who pay for their influence...

so we have several myths and habits that plague us, we live in a democracy and that we have economic freedom, because we don't....if you only have one choice, you don't have a choice... and if we only havecapitalism as our only choice, then we don't have a choice.....

so we exists in a two part tyranny, both political (lack of democracy and our representatives being bought and sold)and economic (lack of economic choices and the tyranny of the profit margin/the pursuitof profit which is nihilism)

the path to freedom, real political and economic freedom must beour goal, our destination....how are we to free ourselves of thesetyrannies, economic and political?

the path into the future is really a path into real and true freedom,which means real and immediate freedom of choice... not just a pretend economic or political fantasy about our freedom of choices.....we have no choice if we only have one choice......

the choices available must also includes choices that we don't even approve of.... choices must include all choices, not just oneswe happen to approve of....

politically, today we have two and only two choices....pretend democracies or dictatorships like Putin's Russia....those aren't choices if you only have one choice, the pretend democracy or the dictatorship.....

and as both of them are fundamentally flawed, it doesn't leave usmuch choice, now does it?

so how do we escape our dilemma?

by first becoming aware of our situation and then second,understanding what our possibilities are....what are our choices?

indeed, what our are choices?

Kropotkin

"Those who sacrifice liberty for securitywind up with neither." "Ben Franklin"

in reading about the enlightenment, one argument against"freethinkers" "Spinozist" "Radicals" "Atheist" was that to believein such things, was a path to the destruction of civilization, of the loss in belief in god lead to people being free to commit acts of violence and destruction and crimes against society becausethis "atheism" lead to a loss of values.... and this loss meant people were free to act in any way possible to the determent of society and yet, it is clear that the continued march in the lossof belief did not lead to such crisis in society.... in fact, if we know ourhistory, we know that society is safer today, then it was 200 or 300 years ago...and this loss of belief had no impact on the safety or security of society...we have less belief cannot be denied and yet, we are demonstrable saferand more secure today then we were, when belief in god and the biblewas consider essential for the safety and survival of society...

one hears the argument that we must, must believe in the dogmas of state and society to be able to maintain a safe and securesociety and yet, we have heard this for the last 300 year and it stillhasn't been shown to be true...we have a America being full of CINO'Sand yet America still hasn't fallen victim to the violence and insecurityof lacking respect for the dogmas/myths/habits/prejudices of America today....in other words, the loss of belief in god andreligion hasn't degraded America in any noticeable way but the lossof belief in the American way of life has degraded America....but notin the anticipated way of the violence and mayhem that was predicted...but in the crisis of belief that has created a malaise in America and the west....part of this malaise is from the fact we can't release the old, harmful beliefsof the past but we can't fully accept the new idea's of the present or future...we are trapped in a circle of our own making...a circle that cannot be brokenuntil we release the past and accept the oncoming future........and part of breaking that circle lies in rejecting the current myths,habits, prejudices and superstitions of the modern age....you can't go into the future until you have released the past......

a child cannot grow into being a teenager and then a young adult,until he/she grows and learns to adapt to new beliefs and idea's....the old idea's of their being a Santa Claus for example...and moving past the idea that our parents are the end all, be all of all knowledge and wisdom....the growth of children intoteenagers and young adults mirrors our growth into releasingour beliefs in the myths and habits of our time and oursociety....

Kropotkin

"Those who sacrifice liberty for securitywind up with neither." "Ben Franklin"

the big 4 record companies: universal music group, Sony music entertainment,Warner music group, iTunes.....they own 80% of all record labels...

Car companies: we have 7 major companies in the U.S, GM, Ford, Fiat Chrysler, Toyota, Daimler, Hyundai, Honda, Nissan...basically they make most of the cars in the world....

the breakfast cereals are General Mills, Kellogg, Post and Quaker...so all those breakfast cereals you see in the aisle are made by 4 companies....

in other words, we all eat food made by the same companies,we watch TV and movies made by the same people, we listen to the same music and the same radio stations....we read the same books and we download the same music....on the same computers made by the same usual suspects, Dell, HP, Apple, Lenovo, Asus,

in other words, there might be some regional differences but the truthis we are impacted by the same forces because the sameness of thecompanies that own our lives....

we bank at the same banks and have 401k plans with the same people....

our news, music, TV, movies, food, cars and banking all come from the same 5 or 6 companies that dominate the specific industries..

can you think of a more insidious tyranny then having the same companies give you your news or food or cars or moviesor TV?

this is why I deny that we have freedom today, because material freedommeans buying from the same 5 or 6 companies for our needs...and political freedom doesn't exist because those same companies that that provide our services also buy and sell politicians to promote the companies, not work for the citizens of the U.S....for example, days after the tax cut passed, the KOCK brothers sent a 500,000 check to Ryan to thank him for the massive tax cuts they got.... he got paid for services rendered.....and that is how Washington works today.... you get paid for services rendered... and it doesn't matterwhat you do for the average citizens because they can't pay the equalamounts to get equal treatment..... the politicians work for corporations today... the same corporations that own the food and media and car and banking industries....

so if you keep hearing the U.S is number one or that we are the greatestcountry on earth, its because the same 6 corporations that own the mediawant you to believe that the US is number one or that we are thegreatest country on earth.....it is in their best financial interest to makeyou believe that... whether its true or not, is irrelevant....

so what is the answer to this corporate tyranny? simple, stop buying things, don't buy things...the corporate world survives and thrives because you and I keep buying things.....so don't...live below your means and starvethe corporate interests that own and tyrannize this country...

Kropotkin

"Those who sacrifice liberty for securitywind up with neither." "Ben Franklin"

if we don't live in a democracy and we don't, then we have something else......if your elected representative only followthe money and do as the corporate interest want, then they don't representative you... they represent those corporate interest...you have no representation in congress and if the president does the samething as IQ45 does, then you have no one representing you in Washington DC...we are no longer a democracy if you have no representation in the politicalsphere....the idea of democracy is that the power flows from the people to places like Washington but that is no longer true..........you have no powerand the corporations have all the power to do what they want, hence weget massive tax cuts for corporations and individual within those corporations....we get lobbyist writing laws for congressmen who then simply take the laws written by lobbyist and hand it straight into the basket for approval in congress....and then the congressman gets his pay like Paul Ryan got hispayment in the form of a check from the Kock brothers for 500,000 after passing the tax bill.....

and we don't have economic freedom if the only economic system is capitalism which is built upon the theft of wages from it employee's...how do you think corporation and individuals build up such wealth? it comes from wage theft of its employee's... if you create $5 dollars ofgoods or effort and the company sells that good or effort for more then $5 dollars, then your creation of goods or effort is sold for more then they pay you...for example, if you wage is say, for convenience sake, $5 dollars an hour,the company to make a profit must sell your work for more, say, $10 dollarsan hour and who profits from this extra profit? certainly not you.. the companypockets the creation of the extra $5 bucks and thus from your work, pay the enormous salaries and bonuses of CEO's.... not their work, your work createsthe profit they use to create their enormous pay.....so economically, we are certainly not free, not a consumers as I showed by the few companiesthat own the media and car industry and food industry and banking and breakfast cereals....... you don't have freedom in any economic sense becauseof the small number of companies that control the various markets....and you don'thave any freedoms as an employee... remember the right to work states, whichcan fire you for anything at anytime... without cause... you are at the mercy ofcorporations, both in terms of what you can buy and how you can work.....

so we don't have any political freedom and we don't have any economic freedom,so what freedom do we have? free speech? try trashing the company you work foron social media and you will get fired... you have a very limited free speech...do you freedom of actions? no, government intrusion into social aspects of life,like preventing abortions...... you have a very limited free actions......

so lf you lost your myths and habits and prejudices and superstitions,you would see and thus know, that you are no longer living in a democraticsociety with freedom of actions and speech limited... you live in a worldwhere it is a political system called Corporatcracy......a society or system that is governed or controlled by corporations....

do you want to continue this course where you have no rights and no freedoms?

say nothing, do nothing and your life will be controlled for you bycorporations..... the battle for who you are has already been decided in corporate boardrooms all over the world..... do you want your fate to bedecided for you? if you are ok with that, then do nothing, say nothing..don't march or protest, just sit on your couch watching spoonfed media, designed to keep you passive and silent.....

make a choice....become who you are... by your choice, not some corporatechoice make for you.....

Kropotkin

"Those who sacrifice liberty for securitywind up with neither." "Ben Franklin"

and what does this have to do with my constant callfor people to become who they and find their possibilities?

why everything..... you don't exist independent of society or whathappens in society....the tide of forces beyond our control and forcing up to become passive and silent worker bee's withno rights and no freedoms and no possible course of actions.....

you have two choices, one is be a worker bee and two, becomeengaged with your own garden.. don't become involved...disengage in society and work on your stuff....

but you are not given the third choice.... fight back....engage in what has been a 40 year class warfare against the poor, minorities, working and middle class driven by the ultra rich.....they have been engaged in class warfaresince the earlier 1980's... fight back....this is war...defend yourself against those who have taken your political rights away and the same people who have taken your economic rights away.....

or just give and say, pox on both houses... let the revolution begin withoutactually defining who we are fighting and what is our mission statement is....

"We the people, in order to form a more perfect union....."

this is one such mission statement..... and we need another, newermission statement that fits our new and ever changing environment....where we are no longer subject to the old tyrannies but subject to new tyrannies of economic domination of our lives by our corporate overlords.....

I can now see why the French had a revolution and the Romans did not,the French monarchy didn't even care enough to offer up "bread and circus" whereas at least the Romans did so and so went without a major revolt the last 500 years of Roman existence.....Years that went very badly forthe Roman Peasants but they had their "bread and circus" to keep themamused.... the French revolution is one such example we must keep in mindin plotting our new revolution... the Russian revolution is another example....when you have nothing, not even hope, where your life no longer makesany type of difference, you have nothing to lose in engaging in revolution....we have nothing to lose, we don't have any political freedom and we don't haveany economic freedom, but we do have our "bread and circus" and perhapsthat will be enough to avoid revolution in our country.....such flimsy excuse to avoid reclaiming your life...I can't fight for who I am because I have to watch the Kardashians tonight....

and we return to the chains of our myths and habits and prejudices andsuperstitions... these chains hold us from acting upon what is in our bestinterest which is overthrowing the corporate overlords.. and recoveringour lives, being saved as it were... you want salvation, here is your chanceto find salvation and be saved.... save yourself from the chains that keepyou tied up in our corporate political system....discover what myths andhabits and prejudices and superstitions you hold onto, that allowsthe corporate overlords to keep and maintain power over our lives

that is the true meaning of salvation, the true meaning of being saved....saving yourself and your children from the tyrannies that hold us hostage.....using outdated myths and habits and prejudices and superstitions that allowthem to keep power...... America is the greatest country on earth.....that myth helps keep them in power... America is the freest country onearth, that habit and prejudice helps keep them in power....

the mantra that I have preached over these last 2 years come into playnow.... become who you are by taking control of your life, economicallyand politically and socially..... walk away from the current religion of America,commercialism....materialism, the fetish of buying goods for the sake of buying goods and not for the betterment of you or your society......you buy crap because that is what keeps the system up and running....so shut it down... literally by not buying what they are selling, both as an ideology, a religion and as a system.....stop buying goods and material to fuel your materialist lifestyle....and in doing so, we damage the system.... we have to crash the housearound our ears to regain control of our lives...

but if you want to be a slave to the corporations, please do nothing, say nothing, be silent and passive...

your corporate masters thank you......

Kropotkin

"Those who sacrifice liberty for securitywind up with neither." "Ben Franklin"

now in regards to my last post calling for a revolution because we have a tyranny in this country, a tyranny of the economic and political....

one might say, Kropotkin, you have been talking about self and findingour possiblities and other such philosophical issues, now you are calling fora revolution to overthrow the so called tyranny in America.....that calling for a revolution is extreme and radical, illadvised and intemperate.....there is no such need for such radical action... moderate actions are neededand required.. be patiant and measured and moderate and judicious in wordsand actions... don't be a radical......moderate solutions are what is called for,not such radicalism....

I say look at France circa, 1787.....after years, indeed decades of fiscial mismangement begining with the building of Versailles...and going for the next100 years.... the people were suffering and there were even famines.....due to some crop failures.... the people had enough... there millions whowere in extreme poverty and millions more were barely making it....

and what moderate solution would have fixed that extreme poverty? what reasonable solution would have brought millions out of barely surviving?

no, extreme times calls for extreme solutions.....

recall Russia circa, 1917....the first World War has brought Russia to ruin... after decades of mismanagment, Russia was on the brink of completecollapse..it was an extreme situation and what moderate and sensible and temperate solution would have save Russia from collapse? extreme time calls for extreme solutions.....

so we today, we exists in extreme times, what moderate and reasonable solutions would you have us do to fight the extreme radicalism of the right...who deny the basic and fundamental rights of people to have food and shelterand schooling and basic protections of the law and live in fearof the police and being deported.......

the radical extremism of the right forcing people to choose between food and medicine, my mother who is 83 must make this choice as the priceof her medicine has grown to the point where she must make a choicebetween food and her medicine and millions upon millions of people mustmake the same choice....why should she face a retirement whereshe can barely exist and then is threaten with the reduction of social security checksand increase cost of medicare and Medicaid..... or mothers who because of the reduction of such programs like chip and WIC must choose who gets to eat becauseof these reductions in needed services for children.....

and what does the radical right offer in place of people facing starvation?

tax cuts! and not for the poor, noooooo, massive tax cuts for the wealthy andpowerful...and what moderate and sober and reasonable solution do you offerfor millions facing such horrible choices between food and needed medicine?

a tax cut? for the wealthy? if you offer such a thing, you are without a soul....

and what reasonable and moderate solution would you offer to help feed children who have very little to eat as it is?

and how do we educate such children when we reduce the money going to schools and offer vouchers? vouchers toget kids into schools when they can't afford to eat, littleless be able to get into a charter school or some other typeof private school.....

these are radical times, extreme times and radical times call for, demand radical and extreme solutions.... when a man is starving,do you offer him a tax cut? if you are a soulless republican, yes, you offer a starving man, a tax cut... a rich person solution to a poor person problem....and that is what is wrong with America....

the GOP offers a rich man solution to a poor person problem....a tax cut won't feed your children and a tax cut won't solvethe problem of a older person choosing betweenfood and medicine and a tax cut won't pay for your heat duringthe winter months and won't pay for an education for a child....

why? because a tax cut is a reimbursement for expenses madeand these people are too poor to have the expenses in the first place...they can't get a tax cut for an expense they can't afford.... that is whytax cuts are a rich person solution because they can afford the expensein the first place and thus can claim it later on their taxes.....

a tax cut is after the fact and that doesn't feed people or children or old people at the moment when they actually need the money to payfor food or housing or shelter or heating costs.....a tax cut reimburses themafterword..... when it doesn't do them a fucking lot of good.......

these are not moderate and measured or reasonable or judicious times, these are extreme and radical times and extreme and radicaltimes call for extreme and radical solutions.....

wealthy people can afford moderate and reasonable solutions, starving and helpless people cannot.....if you offer up a moderateand reasonable solution, it is a rich person solution to a poor person problem.....

Kropotkin

"Those who sacrifice liberty for securitywind up with neither." "Ben Franklin"

these two point are connected.... recall when Rousseau wrote....Christainty was still the strongest influence in Europe....and what was the Christian idea? that man is born withoriginal sin, man was born guilty of a crime committed...and man cannot be saved unless god saved him, there was noother possiblility to be saved.... this idea of original sin has been hanging over people since the end of the Roman Empire......for over a thousand years,people have been taught that they were born guilty of crimes committed...this myth, habit, prejudice, superstition was the basis of how people thoughtof themselves and how they thought of people....

and here is Rousseau saying man is born free... free? free from the guilt oforiginal sin? the basis of both catholicism and protestantism is this idea of guilt, the guilt of original sin....man cannot go to heaven until the father saves the son, god saves man.......and that can only happen when the son asks for forgiveness.... for sins committed, for the other idea is all menare corrupt.....and guilty of sin.... for no man is without sin except jesus....this is vital to understand, to make sense of Rousseau....but what are the chainshe refers to? they are the chains of myths and habits and prejudice and superstitionthat are taught to us as children..... that there is a god, and we are born of sin and guilt,America is the greatest country on earth. America is the freest country on earth....these myths, these habits form a picture of the universe in a child's mind thattake the place of real thought of who we are and what is our purpose in life....

but why are men evil and man is good? because we have taught that.... man is born guilty of a crime, a crimeof original sin, since the middle ages the church and the teachers have taughtthat men are evil, that men are guilty, that we cannot be saved by our own devices...we must have the help of another to find our way into heaven....

men are evil because we have been taught we were evil... we are of original sin,and that is evil... but man, MAN is good because we are born free of this knowledge but we are then taught, man and we are man, we are guilty of sin, we are born of sin, we begin our thinking lives with this understandingthat we are born of guilt and guilty of sin, that we are evil until we areforgiven by god... if a child is taught they are evil, then they growup believing they are evil and if there is no forgiveness, then whybother being good, it doesn't matter if you are good or not, you are going to die evil, unable to get to heaven...... this notionof sin and guilt....

for over a thousand years, man was taught he was evil, until people likeRousseau taught people differently....

men are evil, but man is good.....

man is born free but everywhere in chains.....

when we give children ribbons for participating in sports, we are saying, you have value.... we are reacting to a thousand years of teaching that man is evil and worthless.....and we are rejecting the message of those thousand year's.....and what message should we be rejecting today?

Kropotkin

"Those who sacrifice liberty for securitywind up with neither." "Ben Franklin"

if we understand the above post, then we can cometo the same conclusion that Rousseau came to, thatman is born free and innocent... but the message from society was that we are born guilty and in bondage...society then continues to carry out that message with phony and false myths and habits and prejudices and superstitions liketo survive, we must compete and defeat our fellow man......there is only competition between man, not cooperation.....if you want your piece of the pie, you must fight for it or die.....

but the truth is this... the pie is big enough to support everyone...we don't need to compete for our piece of the pie because itis big enough... but because of income inequality, where 500 people have the same wealth has half the world's population....3.5 BILLION people.......how is that justified by the wealthy is simply by more myths and prejudices, the Ayn Rand superstitions thatthe wealthy deserve their wealth by virture of their superority and their creating more wealth then others......as if the creation of wealthis the basis of what a human being is.... that all our possibilities arein the creation of wealth....and not in being a better human being or infinding new means of becoming....or in the act of simple reflection of whowe are.....

man is good but because society is about the creation of wealth and the search for profit to make the 1% even wealthier, that createsthe new false message that we exist because we are consumers and producers... we exist to consume and we exist to create wealth,not for ourselves mind you, but for those who own the means of production.....

we don't exist just to be ourselves.... we exist to make a contributionto society, I.E. to create profits for the 1%.....

WE ARE A MEANS TO AN END.... and that end is profits....and we are expendable assets that have value only as longas we create profits and once we no longer create profits, we are tossed aside like yesterday's garbage.....that is the modernvalue of man..... profit creating........

in some ways, this is worse then the old fashion idea thatwe are born of original sin and thus guilty.... because at least,here we can be saved if we confess our sins and we can be saved...whereas if we have value only as the creators of profit, there isn't a chance of redemption, of being saved... because how does one getsaved in a world of profit? by only having money and those few, those lucky few, the 1%... they are saved.... the rest is dammed.....

when the only value that is respected is money, then everythinggets judged by money.... if all you have is a hammer, then everythinglooks like a nail...there is no other values......

and so one is judge by money... not by deeds or idea's or wisdom, but by money... and those without money are judge unworthy, without value, having no point or purpose....

society by valuing money over all other values, creates the message that without money, you have no value....that you have no point or purpose.....

have you ever wonder why life seems to be so cheap? because society has deemed life to be cheap... in its search forprofits, life has been deem of less value then profits, life has lessvalue then money... if you want life to have value, to have meaning,then you must place life above money, above profits......

but this will not happen because to do so will reduce the worth of the 1% and they own the media and the state and the church and so they will continue to push the narrative of the 1%.....that the only value in life is profits.. everything elseis replaceable, expendable, disposable including people....

you want to know why we are so fucked up? because the message of the 1% devalues life to being replaceable, expendable, disposable....

profits above people devalues people.......

and that is the message of society today.....

Kropotkin

"Those who sacrifice liberty for securitywind up with neither." "Ben Franklin"

one of Rousseau's points was that wealth created the corruption of man..wealth doesn't create the corruption of man, it is the pursuit of wealththat negates man or the values of man....when we pursue wealth or profitsto the negation of who we are, then that is the source of the corruption....

wealth itself is not good or evil, it is neutral... how it is used determineswhether it is "good or evil"........things are not "good or evil".....it is how they are used that decides if they are "good or evil".....

morality is simply a judgement about how things are used.....not the things themselves......for things themselves are neutral....

human beings are things and as such are neutral.. it is howwe use or are used that determines our "good or evil".....

Kropotkin

"Those who sacrifice liberty for securitywind up with neither." "Ben Franklin"

the question that Rousseau began his writing career on, was the question given by the Academy of Dijon, "Whether the restoration of the sciencesand arts has contributed to purify morals?"

in other words, has the growth of civilization contributed to our moral growth? are we more moral because of civilization or are we less moral because of civilization? now that question depends on how one answers the question of,what is morals?

the question also depends on our understanding of civilization......as pointed out, civilization is really a neutral idea........it isn't "good or evil" per se.....but depending on how it is used....and what is its goal? it civilization used for the enrichment of individual members or is civilization used for the benefit of all the members of a society?

as defined right now, society/civilization is used for the enrichment of individual members, the 1%.... and not for the benefit of allthe members of society.....so we are less moral because of this use of civilization... if we use civilization for the benefit of all membersof society, then we are more moral...... how a society uses its membersdecides the value of the members of that society... morality becomesa function of how society uses its members of that society.....in a throwaway, disposable, expendable society that values society citizens only for their consumerism, then morality becomes a question of the value of individual members of society...and if you create nothing,you have no value...if you have no wealth, you have no value.....because morality implies value.... and if you have no value, you are outside of morality... because you have no value in society......morality is connected to the creation of wealth and the creation of profits.........and the moral righteous ones are the ones who createprofits..... and the rest because of their failure to create profitsand money, are immoral and thus have no value......

Kropotkin

"Those who sacrifice liberty for securitywind up with neither." "Ben Franklin"

one argument is human nature is innate.....another argument is human nature is created by experiences....

we are a blank slate says the experience argument..and that experiences fill up the blank slate......and if society creates myths and habits and prejudices andsuperstions, that lead people to believe or to understand they have no value outside of creating profits, that understandingcreates "human nature"... creates the idea that we have no valueoutside of creating profits and/or by being a consumer.....

"human nature" is created by society and if society has no need or any use for values outside of the creation of profits, then most humanbeings have no value in society.....and human beings become replacable, expendable, disposeable......

the myths and habits and prejudices and superstitions of our childhood become the basis of our "human nature" andif those myths...etc. negate our being, they damage our "human nature"......

we can only become who we are by society allowing, no, that is the wrong word, not allowing, but by accepting who we are even ifwe don't create profits.....if our "human nature" is created by experiences, then we should create experiences that allowus to become something more then the creators of profit....

for example, in education, we educate to create a working class,to allow people the skills to get a job and support themselves..that is all education is used for... not to create better people or to improve themselves but to use people to become better workers and create bigger profits......

what if, what if we change the meaning of education to mean,to educate people to become better people and not use education totrain people to have skills to get a job.....what if education is usedto discover who we are and to find out our possibilities, which does notinvolve job training and finding a career.... but to improve us in how tobecome better people... to search for wisdom and not job skills.....

what is education for? that becomes the question......

what is "human nature"? that is the goal of education and not just to train workers to get careers......

Kropotkin

"Those who sacrifice liberty for securitywind up with neither." "Ben Franklin"

so in regards to "human nature".....if we don't reward such human values as kindness, joy, love, happiness, the positive values of human experience....thenwhy have those experiences?

if we negate those human values for the pursuit of profits,then society rewards those who follow the pursuit of profits...and those who follow love and peace and joy and joy arenot only not rewarded but in fact, are punished....

at work, which values are rewarded?certainly not values of love or peace or happiness....... work and society doesn't reward thosewho have values outside of the pursuit of profits.....

if you pursue profits, you are rewarded at work with promotions andbonuses.... if you don't, you are punished or at best ignored and deemed without value..... that is how experience is created....and human nature is created..... you reward the actions you favor and you punish the actions not in favor....and so the creation of profits is rewarded and thus we learn what is "human nature".....

if you want people who pursue wisdom, you reward those those who pursue wisdom and punish those who don't pursuewisdom.....that is how we train children and that is how we train students and that is how we train workers......we reward behaviorwe like and we punish behavior we dislike.....

this negation of value works this way.... if we love at work, we are punished because love doesn't create profits...hard work creates profits and is rewarded.....the values we accept are rewarded and the valueswe don't accept are punished.....

and this is how we create "human nature".....

by reward and punishment.......

Kropotkin

"Those who sacrifice liberty for securitywind up with neither." "Ben Franklin"

a question I keep comin back to, is this question of certainty....life is one big question of uncertainty.....it is now noon, shall I still be alive at 5:00 tonight? I don't know. I am uncertain.....the further I inquire intowhat life is and what life is about, the less certain I become....

when I was young, life was black and white.. it was certain in itsactions.... now, now I don't know anything..... I cannot be certain aboutanything..... shall I die? I cannot know that... I can certainly guess that I shalldie, but guessing is not certainty.... what we can know for certain? as far as I can tell, nothing.....and we have no way of becoming certainabout anything.....there is a certain fixation of the past and that is becausewe can create, in our minds, a certainty about the past....it is very attractive tobelieve that something is certain.... this belief in god is in large part about the certainty that the belief in god creates... it becomes a certainty that wecan depend upon..... and yet, even with this belief in god, comes with uncertainty.... for we cannot be certain that we are part of the elect...the ones that shall go to heaven..... we have the ego to believe that we are the elect, but ego is not certainty.... ego is simply ego.....in fact, if I wereto make a joke, uncertainty is the only certainty we have.......it is easy to be black and white, for that creates a certainty that we mightbase our views upon but the fact is, viewing the universe in black and white, yes and no, up and down, good and evil, fails to catch the universe in its entirety....

any given action can be viewed as yes and no and good and evil...can that action be considered evil, yes, depending on how it affects youand the exact same action might be considered good, depending on how it affectsyou......we can never be certain if any given action is good or bad... we can guess,but that is all, a guess and nothing more.....we begin this journey of life with not muchmore then a kiss for luck and off we go.... we have nothing else....

we consider money some sort of certainty...if we are rich, we have somesort of certainty... and if we have an collage education, we believewe have some sort of certainty....and if we have friends and family, that creates some sort of certainty in our lives... but fact is, that thethings that we consider certainties are not...they are just moments inthe sand and soon to washed out by the waves of time.....we have nothingand we are nothing and we have no certainty.... just brief moments in timesand then those moment are gone......

Kropotkin

"Those who sacrifice liberty for securitywind up with neither." "Ben Franklin"

we have a situation in our economic and political life whereaswe have institutionalize inequality and disparity in wealth and freedomand influence.....Rousseau basic starting point and his first claimto fame is that men are evil and man is good.... meaning that we are naturally good and that we have been turned to "bad" or"evil" by our society and its institutuionalize inequality.....the man who was first able to fence in a piece of land and claimit is his, was the begining of this source of institutionalize inequality...and the state's main purpose is to defend private property, as is claimedby Locke........now Rousseau didn't want to return to the state of nature,as Hobbes put it, "life outside of society would be 'solitary, poor, nasty,brutish and short".... we need society to allow us to escape this state of nature.... but how do we escape this institutionalize inequality and still not exist in this state of nature?

society and its institutions have created "evil" in men...but we need society.... the GOP and its phony answer is and is defined by Raygun, being the state itself is the problem, the government is the problem.... but that is not a solution....removing the state brings us back to a state of nature where, "life outside of society/government would be solitary.........."

so we have a two part question, one, is man naturally good? and two, is the state part of the problem as defined by Rousseau and Raygun? The institutions of the state that create and fosterthe institutionalize inequality that exists in the state, must thoseinstitutions be eliminated? or do we have to do/try something else?

in my study of history, I understand that as the population grows,the state/government must also grow to help organize society toavoid the primitive state of nature that allows life to be "solitary....the rise of government and its institutions comes from the rise of population....you want to limit government? you must reduce the population and that isn't really possible without large scale genocide.....and thus that answer is not available to us...

we have to find the answer with the understanding that we have certain restrictions forced upon us....

we have massive population.... we have already in place, institutions thatwill fight to maintain their privilege place, and we have an autocracy,one of wealth, that have control over the institutions we have such as the legal system, the legislative system and the executive branch....they will not willingly give up their power and the protection of their wealth....

but it is clear in any analysis that it is wealth, that is the driver of our current system, wealth and the protection of one's wealth thatis the basis of our government today....

is one person having billions a problem? no, it is the fact and it is a fact,that 500 people have the equal wealth as half the population of earth....that is the problem....... and those 500 people by virtue of their wealth,control the means of government by bribes to the legislative and executivesystem.... why would the wealthy give millions upon millions of dollarsto members of congress if not to buy them? certainly not out of the goodnessof their heart... they are buying influence and buying the government, nothing short of that........

so when we reduce it down, it becomes money that drives our economicand political system.... so, the answer becomes remove the money and thus we can recover our rightful place as owners and participants within the political process.... because as of right now,we have no part in government because the politicians listen to the money and not to the citizens of this country.... you buy politicians so they listen to you and not the citizens of this country.....

so we come around to the understanding that the institutionalizeinequality of our lives is there to stay unless we remove the buying and selling of politicians.....

so is Rousseau right? is men evil and man is good?

I think so... within limits......

Kropotkin

"Those who sacrifice liberty for securitywind up with neither." "Ben Franklin"

the french call it.. amour propre.... a sense of one's worth, self respect....

Rousseau used it in terms of the esteem that depends on others..we have amour propre when others view us favorable...

the other term that can be use as self love is amour de soi, whichis self love but is more basic then amour propre.. this self love tends tobe naturally good and is basic with animals also....the self love is for the individual well being....

so we have two basic idea's about self love.....

but we have a third idea, that is we justify actions taken based on self love.....I am looking out for my best interests regardless of what thatmeans to others.... looking out for number one and that is me...

this idea is not only common today but is the basis of our economic system....

but look at our hero's.... we glorify those who don't put self love first......our hero's are MLK and Gandhi and Lincoln and Mother Teresa.......people who put others first and they don't practice self love in the third way......this shows we are aware of and want to follow thosewho put others first.... we just don't have a support system that allows usto practice what we preach........ to practice putting others first meanswe face opposition from those who goal is to practice self love byaccumulation of material goods and money.....we are punished for our desire to put others first by those who practice the vain and selfish self love.....notice the relationship between the words selfand selfish..........

I call for a new understanding where we not only support butwe actively support those who put others first......

We follow our hero's in this new understanding of who we are.....

we reject the self love of the pursuit of material goods and wealth....because that self love damages the person who practices it and, anddamages the family and the environment and the society of those whoput self love first, the love of goods and wealth.......

but one says, it increases the wealth of a country and increasesthe GDP..... as if that is the important aspect of our lives.... it isn't......the idea that we are an economic beings first and foremost is wrongand dangerous..... we cannot afford the practice of an unlimited pursuit of limited wealth and material goods... we must, to save,our resources, we must end the capitalistic idea that we pursuewealth and material goods.... if we put ourselves first, as we have done,is to risk the future welfare and sustainability of any future society, of ourchildren health and welfare.....what parent wastefully spends and destroys a child's inheritance? a rather selfish parent and that is whatwe shall be if we waste and destroy our children's inheritance by using up our resources in some vain and unproductive pursuit ofwealth and material goods.....

what we have failed to understand is our actions are not isolatedactions.... we exists in both space and time... when we act, our actions exists in both space and time....we take up space andwe occupy time..... if we build a house, that house takes up bothspace, the house occupies space and it takes up time....that house exists within duration, which is time......with every single house built leaves our children that much lessspace and time...... but we have millions to house and feed and clothe.....therein lies the difficulty of our current economic system whereas500 people own the same amount of wealth as half of the entire human race.....in terms of the future sustainability of the human race, we cannot afford tohave the current economic inequality that exists because it denies the future the ability to create its own future because the wealth needed to create that future is tied up in the hands of a small number of people........ so we have a choice, keep our current systemand destroy our children's future or we change and become aware of our choices and practice love of others before love of self.......

the choice is yours.... self love and destroy the future or practicelove of others and save the future.......... choose and decidethe future....

Kropotkin

"Those who sacrifice liberty for securitywind up with neither." "Ben Franklin"

we have in the enlightenment, the Philosophes, who argued thatman was ruled by myths, habits, prejudices and superstitions..these myths and habits and prejudices were from to such authorities as Aristotle and Plato and the Bible and the church and the Pope.....Would these myths and habits and prejudices and superstitions that we have received from these authorities, stand up to a rigorous inspection?

if we examined these myth and habits and prejudices in the light on modern science, would they pass the test of still being authentic truths, as told to us by authorities? in other words, would we still believe in godif we actually examined god in terms of modern thought? the answer is clearly no....

so we then have Hume who comes along and tell us whywe cannot believe in the old myths and habits and prejudices andsuperstitions.... the enlightenment was working toward freeingpeople from the old myths and habits and prejudices and superstitions likebelieve in god and the authority of the pope... but Hume told us,gave us method to refute such things..... his thought was that we, by means of habit and connection, have connected certain idea's together, but those idea's are nothing more then habit of thought.... in the sky, we see and hear lighting, aftersome time, we have learned to connect this lighting withsome idea of god....but there is no connection between lighting and god, the connection only exists from our habit of connectinggod with the lighting...and then the authorities continued thismyth and habit to every generation as it came along....

so Hume offers us a method to continue the quest of the Philosophes, by undercutting the myths and habits and prejudices and superstitionsthat exists and is perpetuated by the authorities to maintain their power and hold over us.......

so the myth that America is the greatest country on earth is perpetuated by those who have the most to gain by that myth and habit, peoplein the political world who use such myths and habits to get youto vote for them.....and also to maintain their power over you......

so Hume and the Philosophes worked together in their quest torid the human race of those myths and habits and prejudices andsuperstitions that prevent you from being able to live free....remove those myths and habits and prejudices and you will be freeand be able to become who you are... and now we reach our modern quest to become who we are and find out our possibilities.....

if we are dominated by myths and habits and prejudices and superstitions,how can we be free to freely make choices about who we are and what wecan become?

if we allow the myths and habits and prejudices and superstitions to determine who we are and what is possible, then we allow the past,the long dead past to decide who we are and what is possible for us....

if we allow those myths and habits and prejudices and superstitions tolimit our choices into who we are and what is possible for us, then we are no longer free agents, freely deciding who we are...we are determined by those myths and habits and prejudices and superstitions....in other words, if we hold to the belief in god because we haven't freed ourselves of our childhood teaching and myths and habits and prejudices and superstitions... we are determined.... we are no longerfree to act if we allow myths and habits and prejudices andsuperstitions to make our choices for us......

the argument is, how can you be free if you have your actions determinedfor you by the myths and habits and prejudices and superstitions in your life? if you were taught that there is a god in childhood and you never challengedthat idea, then you are dominated, determined by an idea, you learned as a child....

that is the value of a certain saying..... It is not enough to have the courage of our convictions, but we must have the courage for an attack uponour convictions......

the value is to be free, to make your choices, not because you still holdyour myths and habits and prejudices and superstitions from childhood..that isn't freedom, that is being determined, no, to be free, you must have the courage for an attack upon your convictions...you must becomefree of the myths and habits and prejudices and superstitions of childhood.....

you must grow up and create your own values, your own beliefs, instead of holding myths and habits and prejudices and superstitionsthat have lingered on for over a millennium.....that have lingered onwithout any thought or understanding as to what they actually mean.....what they mean to you and what they mean to society at large....I have stated more then once, that the belief in god is the singlemost destructive thought human beings have ever had.....this thought has created the greatest amount of disunity eversown and the caused the greatest number of deaths in human history......

Kropotkin

"Those who sacrifice liberty for securitywind up with neither." "Ben Franklin"